January 19, 2001

'Cuba and the Politics of Passion'

By NINA C. AYOUB

"All politics are emotional dramas, satisfying or otherwise," writes Damin J. Fernández. So why, asks the political scientist, have emotions been neglected in his field?

The literature "usually presumes the emotional without explicitly articulating it," he says. In contrast, he offers Cuba and the Politics of Passion (University of Texas Press), a book that vigorously defends the importance of studying emotions in political life while treating a topic close to the scholar's own